This invention relates in general to storage containers designed to enable remote electronic searching for objects located within the containers. More particularly, this invention relates to an indicator circuit for such storage containers which is activated whenever a sought object is located in a given container.
Some known storage containers are constructed according to a unique design for enabling remote electronic searching for objects, such as file folders and documents within such file folders, located somewhere within a collection of electrically interconnected storage containers. Commonly assigned pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/694,829 filed Jan. 8, 2013 for “Storage Container For Electronically Addressable File Folders And Documents”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,963,716 issued Feb. 24, 2015, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses such a container design. With reference to FIG. 1, each container 10 is provided with a pair of electrically conductive support rails 17, 18 mounted in the container 10 interior near the top margin. The rails 17, 18 are laterally spaced by an amount designed to receive the ends of support braces 21, 22 incorporated into file folders 20 (only one illustrated in FIG. 1 for clarity) removably placed within the container 10 to provide both mechanical support for each file folder 20 and electrical connections to circuitry including an address decoder located within one of the file folder 20 support braces 21, 22 (as illustrated, support brace 21). The circuitry in support brace 21 also includes a pair of visible indicators: a POWER ON indicator 23, and an ADDRESS MATCH indicator 24 (each preferably an LED). The circuitry in support brace 21 is described and illustrated in commonly-assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/803,712 filed Jul. 2, 2010 for “Documents Management Using Remote Document Location And Retrieval ”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,994,534 issued Mar. 31, 2015, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
A container circuit board (not illustrated in FIG. 1) is mounted in the container 10 and contains electronic circuitry for receiving unique address signals supplied by a host computer via a local controller which identify a folder or document to be located. The rails 17, 18 are individually coupled to the electronic circuitry on the container circuit board: one of the rails (rail 17) receives the address signals from the local controller and supplies them to all file folders 20 residing in the container 10; and furnishes response signals from the file folders to the electronic circuitry of the container circuit board. These response signals are coupled to the local controller, which sends the information contained in the signals to the host computer. The information in the response signals includes the identification of the storage container in which the found folder is located. Visible POWER ON indicator 23 on file folder 20 is activated whenever the folder brace 21 is ohmically connected to rails 17, 18 in order to signify that the file folder 20 is installed correctly and is operable. Indicator 23 is preferably an LED having a relatively low current draw when activated of no more than about 0.3 mA. Visible ADDRESS MATCH indicator 24 is activated whenever the address stored in the circuitry in folder brace 21 matches the folder address supplied to the file folder circuitry by the local controller via rail 17. Indicator 24 is preferably an LED having a substantially larger current draw of about 15.0 mA when activated
Each container 10 also has a visible indicator 25 mounted on a wall (such as wall 12) in a position visible to a human operator standing within viewing distance of the storage container 10. Indicator 25 is coupled to the electronic circuitry on the container circuit board and is illuminated whenever the address signals supplied by the host computer specify a file folder or document located in that container 10. An input connector 32 and an output connector 33 are mounted on one of the walls of container 10, such as wall 12: the input connector 32 receives the address signals from the host computer via the local controller; the output connector 33 couples address signals from one container 10 to another container and returns search result information from any container to the local controller. The local controller sends this information to the host computer.
FIG. 2 illustrates a stacked array of such storage containers. As seen in this Fig., a plurality of storage containers 10-1, 10-2, . . . , 10-nare stacked in a vertical array. Each container 10-I has an input connector 32-1, 32-2, . . . , 32-n; and an output connector 33-1, 33-2, . . . , 33-n. A local controller 45 receives address signals from a remote host computer (not shown) and supplies these signals to one of the containers 10-1 by means of an input cable 46 and input connector 32-1 of container 10-1. The address input signals are coupled to the remaining containers in the stack by means of jumper cables 34-1, 34-2, . . . , 34-n-1 which are individually connected between the output connector 33-I of one container 10-I and the input connector 32-I of the next container 10-I. In a preferred embodiment, connectors 32-I, 33-I and cables 34-I and 46 are standard USB devices.
The arrangement of FIG. 2 has no provision for uniquely illuminating the visible indicator 25-I of the container 10-I in which the file folder 20 having the correct sought address is located. This does not pose a problem when only one container 10 is connected to the local controller 45. However, when a plurality of storage containers 10-I of the type described are interconnected as shown in FIG. 2 and one of the containers holds the sought file folder, the visible indicators 25-I of all of the storage containers 10-I are activated. This requires a human operator to visually inspect the interior of each storage container 10-I in the stack until the file folder having the activated ADDRESS MATCH LED 24 is located, which unduly prolongs the search process.